Last Night A Heavy Friday Night
posted by on January 22 at 17:55 PM
Last Friday’s show at the FBK house was a damn good one. City of Dust opened, playing straight-ahead hardcore crust, and I liked them a lot; I’d see ’em again.
Iskra were great, though I was disappointed that the second, female vocalist they had last time I saw the band play was not with them this time. She had a deeper voice that went well with the regular, male lead singer’s Discordance Axis–like vocals. Their crustified black-metal songs were long and filled with plenty of intricate guitar work—including extreme tremolo picking—plus the drummer had TWO bass drums and like 800 toms. I sensed that some of the crowd was somehow getting bored by Iskra, and a few people left during their performance, possibly due to their lengthy between-song explanations about what each song was about. The band members made several mentions as to whether they were boring everyone, and at one point the guitarist remarked that some crusties don’t like Iskra because of the band’s strong anarchist beliefs that they’re not afraid to share via long metal songs and stage banter. Personally, I can get behind a band that writes songs—and explains them—with conviction, although lengthy talks between songs can hurt the pace of a good, fast show. That said, Iskra played an excellent set; don’t miss them in March at the two-day fest Burning Portland (I’ll post more on that as the date nears).
Oroku, once again, blew me away with their heavy, heavy crust. They are so fucking good! As I’ve said before, they’re very reminiscent of His Hero Is Gone (especially the vocals), but with more droney parts and a husky, tough-yet-beautiful cello. They played a short, concise set, and they just rocked my socks off. Oroku recently got back from a European tour, so hopefully they’ll be playing more local shows. In the meantime, they’ve got an LP/CD out, which should be purchased immediately by all.
I'm kicking myself for not being able to make it to this show. I think my band is playing with Oroku soon though, so I'm pretty excited about that.
I was one of the people who left during Iskara's set, but it definitely wasn't because of their explanations of their songs. Really, I left because I was a little bored by their music. I was expecting their drummer to be totally CRAZY (with a drumset like that, you really should be insanely good), but he was super mediocre. I wanted more black metal, and they let me down. The best parts of their set was when they were talking about anarchism.
Oroku was simply fucking amazing, though. That second to last song blew my mind.
oroku rule! again, sorry i missed it.
maybe i should add them on myspace..?
erik, what band? go ahead, plug it! ;)
Aphiskkyu-Bot
We're playing one of Iamthethorn's record release shows on Friday, February 23rd at the SS Marie Antoinette with Wormwood and Oroku.
I thought the show overall was great! city of dust were straight ahead and tight, oroku were also amazing. the first two bands were, as already pointed out, a little bit to derivative. I could tell exactly where they were coming from. still, this didn't detract from the experience of hearing a couple of good hardcore bands!
I disagree with the former reviews about iskra. I thought both the music and performance were heartfelt and amazing in every detail. the drummer was in fact very good, it's just that he wasn't miced! I was watching and believe me, he used everything! the kicks were solid and there were a lot of interesting fills and great sweeps accross the rotos and toms. the band has loud gear, louder than the other two bands, so of course, in a basement, the drums will fall into the background. the same was true for the other bands its just that it wasn't as noticeable because they mostly played d-beats! iskra, true anarchist metal! I also liked the crowd interaction--awesome!
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